From Irregular Miniatures, designed,painted
and photographed
by Andy Partridge

Notes by designer Andy Partridge

For those of you that collect old toy soldiers, the
naïve charm of many early German makers will not have gone unnoticed.
Indeed, there are few who can resist the somewhat lumpen splendor of such
makers as Heyde or Haffner etc., but there are many who can’t afford them.
Today’s prices for these antiques can be shocking, to say the least.

As usual, Irregular rides to the rescue with our new
‘Deutsche Homage’ range. These figures and their accessories have been
sculpted in the style of those old German makers, and are available for a
tiny fraction of the cost of the originals. Nothing has been pirated –
they are not recasts, but have the genuine flavour
of these old, well-loved toy soldiers.

You can choose from an expanding range of bodies, heads
and extras to make many thousands of different types of soldiers and
enemies, ranging from the Victorian era right up to the Spanish Civil
War. A quick (but gentle) animating with a pair of pliers, glue in a head and a
gun, a lick of paint, and out strides a charming 42mm high character as
diverse as a colonial redcoat ready to face the Boers, a Chinese boxer
rebel, Pathan fighters or spear-wielding Zulus.

Deutsche Homage is the name of a figure range ,in approximately 45mm size, made
to echo the primitive charm of many 19th and 20th century German makers,such as
Heyde,Haffner,Noris etc and France's CBG Mignot.These figures would be cast
headless,requiring the correctly coiffured or hatted choice to be inserted
later, and with their arms hanging by their sides to be bent,or 'animated' to
the correct position.This method meant that many thousands of different types of
combatant could be made with simply the choice of headgear and the right paint
scheme from a relatively small selection of castings.Irregular have followed
this path with their Deutsche Homage series and i'd like to share a few tips and
wrinkles with you on how to get the best from these little fellows.

ANIMATING

You've bought your figure,to make say an American civil war infantryman,maybe
the marching man in a tunic DHB2,with a kepi head DHH8 and his rifle DHA1.Well,
before we paint we have a little fixing to do.After making sure your figure has
no excess metal flash from the casting process under the base or in any other
unsightly spot,we can proceed.If you're unlucky enough to get any, simply have
at it with a file or metal snips,dont worry the great German and French makers
had this problem too and employed people in their workshops solely to clean it
away before the animation and painting stages.

Next,put
a drop of super glue or similar on the bottom of the neck stalk and insert the
head into the hole in the torso,making sure he's facing the right way before it
sets.Now you've decided that you want him to be holding his weapon in front of
his chest in a kind of 'high port' pose,so we'll need some pliers.I have a good
pair without ridged teeth inside their jaws as I dont want to mark the metal
when I bend it.If you cant find a pair of these you can always insert something
softer {felt,leather etc}in the jaws to cushion their grip.

Take
the pliers to each arm in turn,inserting them up to the elbow in the jaws and
GENTLY bend.A word of caution,dont go too over the top as you dont want to tear
the metal,i'd stick within a range of less than 90 degrees.

When you
have both arms in place we'll need to fix the rifle.Again a drop of super glue
on each of his hands will be your best bet.Its a brave man who uses solder,I
tried it a few times and only succeeded in melting finely cast weapons and a few hands,you
see the melting point of soldier is almost identical to that of the metal these
chaps are cast in.I believe the older makers actually used different
metals for their weapons than they did for the figures and so could soldier with impunity.Now,if super glue had been invented then...

Before you know it you'll be the owner of a fine fellow you've helped bring to
life,striding off to do toy war against his foe.Now we need to really make him
shine with a lick or two of paint.

PAINTING YOUR DEUTSCHE HOMAGE FIGURES

In the last thirty five years of painting and
restoring old toy soldiers i've picked up quite a few tips that will help to
make your figures look a little more aesthetically pleasing and accentuate
their folksy charm.I know that a lot of people still dont like to paint
their figures,a mixture of a lack of confidence or a fear that they're going
to somehow ruin the figure.Relax,we're going to be painting them in a toy
style,that is the kind of colours,finish and quality that they would have
had on leaving a factory 100 years or so ago.We are going nowhere near the
stellar artwork of a so called connoisseur collectors figure,all shading and
high lighted buttons,no,the chaps we're going to be painting are meant to
march out in rows across the carpet fighting toy wars.Not to stand alone on
a plynth hidden in a cupboard.

So that we're singing from the same hymn sheet,if
you know what I mean,whenever I talk in shades of colour i'll try to give you a
PANTONE reference number so that you'll have a grasp of what i'm going on
about.PANTONE is a set of internationally accepted colour charts used by the
printing industry and can be found quite easily on line if you cant get hold
of a swatch.

To get the best finish on your Deutsche Homage
figures,i'd recommend working in oil based Gloss colours like the little
tins you can find in hobby shops by such makers as HUMBROL or REVELL.For an
even better bargain if you have a lot of one specific colour to paint then
you could buy slightly larger tins of gloss from a hardware store.Same sort
of stuff.Older figures were painted in gloss way back when but the shine was
slightly less 'spikey' looking than what we're left with from modern
paints,but i'll show you a few tricks that might help with that.Some makers
,such as Heyde in Germany did sell figures painted in matt but these were
more expensive to buy,and considered more for adult collectors tastes than
the mass market toy finish of gloss.I prefer the glossy toy look as it seems
to bring little soldiers to life.Plastic acrylic paints wont give you the
right look nor will painting in matt and coating them later with gloss
varnish.This latter move will save a little time but it just seems to
imprison the figure in a remote skin of varnish shutting him off cruelly in
an airtight prison.

If we were painting a collectors type of figure we would
undercoat it first,but traditionally toy figures had the paint applied
straight to the bare metal,so thats what we'll do as well.This is the point
where I have to talk a little of good brushes.Get youself to an art supplies
shop and buy three or four of the best quality sable brushes they have.These
will help all your painting tasks and make it a good deal easier.Dont be
fooled by the Poundland sort of option.Cheap brushes will make your painting
look bad and you will be forever trying to get loose rogue bristles from off
of your figure.Dont bother with cheap its really a false economy.The sort of
brush sizes to go for might be 0000,00,1 and 2.,these sizes will be self
explanatory when you see them.

Its a good thing if you can work on a reasonable number
of soldiers at the same time as gloss paint takes quite a long time to
dry,so working in a kind of production line will save time in the long
run.By this I mean paint all the jackets of one colour then all the trousers
of another and so on.So lets go through colouring a figure and you'll see
how things unfold.

COLOURS

Before we start applying any paint let me chat about
colour shades first.I've seen a lot of toy figures,old and new, painted
badly,and by this I'm not referring to any unsteadiness of hand or of one
shade cutting over another,no,I mean bad because of the wrong shades of paint.There are very few colours one can use straight from the pot,maybe
black and yellow being the exceptions.Just a moments mixing, blending the
right shade will look so much nicer in the long run.I'll talk more of
specific shades as we come to colouring those parts.

STARTING

Paint any large areas first,such as
jackets,trousers,horses,flags etc.,using a larger brush size.This is because
we will be cutting in or painting over smaller details later.So at this
stage dont fret about 'going over the lines'.We can always tidy up later,but
do you know,a certain amount of scruffy vigour will give your soldier life
and personality.If you take a look at factory painted figures of Britains ,Heyde
or Mignot you'll notice that the painting ladies really slapped on the
colours,being not too careful in their task and it does imbue them with an
animism that 'perfect 'painting doesn't have.

MORE ON COLOURS

Mentioning Britains leads me on to talking more of shades
of colour.The tones used on early Britains figures,especially those from
their Paris office are almost a perfect template for what we are trying to
achieve.They have a richness and subtlety that I think is unsurpassed in toy painting.How do we achieve this? By mixing.

Here are a few rules.Never use pure white,its looks
horrible and far too plastic.Much better to go for an off white,and its
amazing how 'off' you can go.We want to get somewhere like a PANTONE

454 PC or a warmer 4545 PC. If you mix in a spot of brown
with your white you'll soon find the shade.A good little tip for all mixing
is for your small amount of additive or darkening colour try using a matt paint.This will help to take away some of the super gloss of modern
paints.If your

figure is a British guardsman in a red jacket,the kind of
shade to go for might be PANTONE 1797 PC which is the brighter end of the
spectrum,or a 1807 C.This more stately shade you could get with the addition
of a spot of reddy brown.Likewise his trousers would be the very dark blue
of PANTONE 5395 C,almost black,and great for those Prussian jackets,sailors
tunics etc. Adding a spot of black to your tin of navy blue will get you
there.

One of the howlers I see the most is chaps just opening a
tin of emerald or Buckingham green and thinking that'll do for the base.Again mixing will do the trick.Put a spot of mid brown into that to
arrive at a more natural grassy shade, its much more appealing.PANTONE 575
or 576 are near.If your painting up a Bedouin or Boxer remember they wont be
standing on grass but more probably a grubby sand shade made from mixing a
little black into a yellow,PANTONE 617 is not too far off. Yellows
themselves look good as a deep sunflower shade,PANTONE 109 PC or 116 PC.Stay
away from lemon shades ,they'll come over mean and acidic,your Arabs and
Chinese for instance,will appreciate their robes in this deeper shade.Do
think about slightly darkening down all colours as it makes for a more
appealing figure.We aren't trying to fake old but to be reminded a little.

Now to what for some is the colour that is hardest to get
aesthetically right,flesh.

FLESH

Britains and Johillco's appealing early figures had a
tricky flesh colour to emulate,and I know as i've restored plenty.They went
for a flesh tone that was particularly dark and greyish,PANTONE 479 is not
too far off ,but then again i'm using an actual swatch of colour and not the
on line version.You can make it with a mixture of red,yellow,a lot of white
and a spot of black.African flesh is a chestnut brown with some black mixed
in,4695 C is close,with Indian skin somewhere between the two,4705 C.Now to
put some more of these colours on.

GET TO WORK

Lets assume we have the jacket,a very deep blue,and the
trousers of brilliant red painted in and dry.Lets add in some straps over
the top.This is where your finer brushes will come into their own.Making
sure your colour is mixed up to a flowing thin cream consistancy,charge your
brush and lets have at it.The secret is to do it quickly,one brief swipe.If
you hover and shake,fidgeting slowly along the line it'll look rotten.We are
after a bit of dash,not dither,the quicker you paint it the better it will
look,trust me on this one.Same with buttons.Using the most shiny gold or
silver you can find,dab on those buttons,sashes and epaulettes as swift as
you like.One trait from Heyde that Irregular have borrowed is the fact that
if something is not modelled on the figure,simply paint it in.Conversely,if
it is modelled and you dont want it,simply paint over it.Thats the toy
soldier way.

With rifles theres a couple of ways to go.British makers
painted the whole thing in a kind of metallic brown{mix gold with dark
brown},while our continental cousins wiped the stock in a reddy mid brown
and either left the barrel and bayonet bare metal or touched them in with
silver.Both look fine.You choose.

A good point to remember before you start is to keep
your choice of colours limited.Most toy soldier manufacturers kept to about
eight or less,primarily for cost but it does also have an attractive limited
pallette feel.Remember we're going for that toy soldier look here,not the
connoisseur model.Too many different shades and it just looks messy.

PAINTING FACES

Heres a couple of good rules that seem to work well.After
you've painted the face you must add THE one toy soldier
ingredient,cheeks.They are naked without them.Virtually every maker filled
in the ruddy blush of their little heroes,you must do the same.Mix up some
red and white to make a pink that is tonally similar to the flesh but with
no darkening,it will zing out more.Load the brush and wipe it in a patch on
either side of the face.If your soldier is a real Victorian man he will of
course have a moustache,some thin black on a fine brush will do
well,quickly{always!} apply across the face.If he is the fresh faced type
dab a spot of red in a small blob where the mouth might be.Dont be tempted
to add a mouth under a moustache,one or the other,never both please,it
always looks wrong,Britains and others knew that.Same rule applies for
beards.Hair can be a swift wipe with black or a reddy mid brown across the
back of the head but dont bother with sideburns as they always look like
you've over messed with the face.

You have a choice with eyes.Most makers painted one
simple black dot each side,which oddly looks better the farther away they
are from each other.Nearer in to the nose comes over rather cross eyed.Its a
matter of taste as to wether they'll have eyebrows or not,the rule seemed to
be the farther back or simple the headgear,the more the likelihood of
brows.Britains tended not to paint them in except for Scotsmen and some
sailors?? I always leave them out.

Dont try to give them whites of the eyes.Again
it looks too fussy and not classic.A few German makers did so on their larger scale
figures but even then the soldiers still looked like stunned madmen.Shell
shocked?.Unfortunately for its minstrel connotations,Africans were always
given whites to their eyes,but it seems okay as the contrast makes them look
more toyish.Check the photos of the 'native' figures in the Deutsche Homage
picture section.

BASES AND FINISHING

Dont know why I do this,just habit I guess,but I always
leave the base painting until last.Maybe because £2.80'm holding it by that as
well.One good trick to get over that spikey pin point look of modern gloss
is this.When your figure is dry, brush it over with talcum powder,then
brush,wipe or blow away any excess.This will take down some of the crazy
shine of the paint and leave you with a soldier that has a pleasing older
feel,and it'll smell nicer.Right I've gassed on for long enough now,time for
a cuppa and to think which of the Deutsche Homage fellows i'll paint next,or
rather,in which guise i'll paint them.Good luck and enjoy yourself.Let me
know how you get on.

SOME FIGURES AND CONFLICTS YOU CAN
CURRENTLY MAKE

Bearing in mind that the Deutsche Homage range is
expanding all the time,I thought i'd mention a few conflicts and figures
that you can currently put together from the present range.All can be
achieved with the correct paint job{gloss or egshell please!}and of
course fitting the 'near enough' head to the 'close enough' body,thats
the toy soldier way.So what takes your fancy?...

THE ZULU WARS-British infantry,cavalry and artillery and
a great choice of native or Zulu types.

THE BOXER REBELLION-Virtually every western nation can be
made,also great boxer foot and imperial cavalry figures.

THE GREAT WAR-Most nations can be made in infantry and
cavalry,under gas attack or not.

SPANISH CIVIL WAR-Let your imagination run riot here with
the rag bag of different uniforms and countries represented.

THE BOER WARS-British army,all branches,Indian types and
of course those wily Boers.Lots of fun to be had here.

US CIVIL WAR-North and south,regulars,zouaves,all cavalry
types and artillery.Roll back the carpet.

NORTH WEST FRONTIER-British army and enough native types
to fight across the rockery.Mules coming soon.

COLONIAL WARS-In the desert or the jungle,be they arabs
or African tribesmen let your imagination run riot with SAILORS landing
ashore or GERMAN EAST AFRICAN campaigns.ASHANTI WARS or carpet combat
across Egypt or Sudan.

INDIAN MUTINY-You can get up and running with some
British infantry and a selection of native types to make murderous
mutineers,and we will be adding more cavalry choices soon.

Perhaps you fancy really letting your imagination fly and
coming up with fictitious countries and conflicts,think of the uses of
the polar explorers,the civilian type figures and the million and one
ways that you can combine the bodies ,heads and accessories of the
military figures that we have already.

Perhaps take the marching tunic figure,add an Adrian
helmet.Paint the jacket in a lilac tone with the headgear in brass? Arm
him with an out of date musket and voila! the first recruit to your
small but brave FANTOVIAN army.Sky's the limit,go on make HG Wells proud
of you.